Rose Hill Packet
18th-century diagram of a hoy, with the names of essential parts and a legend giving dimensions
|
|
| History | |
|---|---|
 New South Wales
|
|
| Name: | Rose Hill Packet |
| Builder: | Robinson Reid, King's Slipway, Sydney |
| Laid down: | 30 December 1788 |
| Launched: | September 1789 |
| Commissioned: | 5 October 1789 |
| Decommissioned: | c.1800 |
| In service: | 1789 - 1800 |
| Fate: | brocken up |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Packet or Hoy |
| Tons burthen: | 12 (bm) |
| Length: | 38-42" |
| Beam: | 16-18" |
| Draught: | less than two fathoms |
| Propulsion: | Sail, oars or poles |
| Sail plan: | cutter |
| Complement: | 8-10 |
Rose Hill Packet, was a marine craft built in Australia, named after the second place of European settlement in Australia, "Rose Hill", the furthest navigable point inland on the Parramatta River. The boat design was later called a packet (or mail) boat, because its use was that of running the first Parramatta River trade ferry, passenger, cargo, and mail service between the Sydney Cove and the Rose Hill (Parramatta) First Fleet settlements after she was launched in Sydney Cove in September and commissioned on 5 October 1789. She was the first purpose-built sailing vessel constructed in Australia.
Governor Arthur Phillip had appointed a Midshipman, Henry Brewer, as temporary superintendent of building works in the colony seven years before. In 1796, Governor John Hunter would establish a government shipyard in Sydney Town. The craft was laid down on 30 December 1788 on King's Slipway, later the James Underwood yards on the east side of Sydney Cove, somewhere near the site of the present Customs House, by convicts under supervision of Robinson Reid, a carpenter from HMS Supply.
Fourteen ship's carpenters are known to have been sailing with the First Fleet ships, so the selection of Reed as the builder was unlikely to have been accidental. Unfortunately the quality of local timber left few options for the construction, and "From the quantity of wood used, she appeared to be a 'mere bed of timber." What made construction difficult was the lack of specialised shipbuilding tools, and many of the carpentry tools intended for use in the cutting and shaping of the European timbers turned out to be unsuitable for the task mainly due to the density of the local hardwood timber. Although there were sixteen ship's carpenters in the colony, of the convicts used in the building of the packet only twelve were trained as carpenters. All these factors forced excessive use of timber.
...
Wikipedia